• California/Minnesota: Sutter Health and Allina Health have signed a definitive agreement to create a combined nonprofit health system across California, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. The deal would create a new health system with 39 hospitals and over 400 care sites that serve more than 5 million patients. According to leaders, the deal is designed to expand access, affordability, and digital capabilities amid growing financial, workforce, and operational challenges. "Healthcare is becoming more complex and demanding, both for patients trying to access care and for the people delivering it," said Sutter president and CEO Warner Thomas. "Together, we will lead the way to accelerate solutions, recruit more physicians and expand locations to improve access and redesign how care is delivered for our patients and communities." The deal is expected to close by the end of the year once regulatory reviews are completed. Once the deal is completed, Allina Health will become Sutter Health's Upper Midwest Division while keeping its brand, board of directors, and headquarters in Minneapolis. Thomas will lead the combined organization as president and CEO of Sutter Health while Lisa Shannon will remain Allina's president and CEO. (Gooch, Becker's Hospital Review, 5/21)
• Maryland: FDA's vaccine advisory committee voted 8-0, with one abstention, to recommend a new monovalent COVID-19 vaccine targeting the XFG variant for the upcoming 2026-2027 respiratory virus season. During the meeting, three vaccine manufacturers, Moderna, Pfizer, and Sanofi, presented data showing that COVID-19 vaccines targeting the XFG variant also provided high levels of neutralizing antibodies against JN.1 family variants. However, the XFG vaccines had more limited neutralization against BA.3.2 lineages. "The XFG variant is the most common variant in the U.S. right now, and looking at the other JN.1 variants that may be coming up, I still think that the BA.3.2 variant is not as common. I think we have to keep surveillance very vigilant though," said Anna Durbin, a VRBPAC member from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She added that the "immunogenicity of the vaccines looks good, so I was very comfortable voting yes." Hana El Sahly, from Baylor College of Medicine, was the one member who abstained, saying they "might be missing the opportunity to expand the breadth of response to the NB.1.8.1 and BA.3.2 variants that are increasing, especially in children who are engines of transmission of respiratory viruses." Although the BA.3.2 variant is not dominant in the United States, El Sahly noted that it did become dominant in Germany and South Africa. (Fiore, MedPage Today, 5/28)
• New York: Swoop, an AI-powered healthcare marketing company, has acquired the prescription management platform Nimble, adding prescription fulfillment and pharmacy connectivity to its portfolio. Nimble works with independent pharmacies across the country and has helped 16 million patients manage their prescriptions through its digital platform. According to Swoop CEO and cofounder Ron Elwell, the company was looking to "get closer" and directly connect with patients throughout their care journey. The new Nimble acquisition allows the company to do so, with Elwell saying that Nimble "has done an unbelievable job" managing prescription fulfillment and therapy adherence. "Ultimately, I think both our companies really care about how we can drive outcomes for patients," said Talha Sattar, Nimble CEO and founder. "And I think for us it enables us to bring our solution to 50, 60 million consumers who use pharmacies every month, and 100 million who use it every year. We can bring modern tools to them and help them stay on their therapies." (Gleeson, Fierce Healthcare, 5/26)

As we move into a post-pandemic era, COVID-19 remains a major public health concern. Learn how COVID-19 affects long-term patient outcomes and health system performance.